Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about the latest developments in signage and speak with experts about how new products and options can help their businesses grow.

Drytac products will be present at Mimaki’s booth, where visitors can see Drytac’s ViziPrint Clear, ViziPrint Deco +, Polar Chrome and both Retac Canvas and Retac Linen being run on Mimaki machinery.

Drytac’s Polar Dynamic Sand will be featured on the Vanguard Digital Printing Systems and Durst Group stand. Elsewhere, Fujifilm will be using Drytac’s Viziprint Impress Clear as part of its live product demonstrations on its booth, while Epson America will showcase the qualities of Polar Grip Air.

Attendees can also visit the Mutoh America stand to view live demonstrations of Drytac’s ReTac Smooth throughout the event. ReTac Smooth will also feature on the swissQprint America stand alongside ReTac Textures Woodgrain.

In addition, Drytac partner HP will demonstrate both Viziprint Impress Clear and SpotOn Clear on its printing machinery.

Glen Fitzgerald, director of sales for the Americas at Drytac commented, ‘The ISA Sign Expo is a highly important event on our US calendar. Running our products on machines from several manufacturers will showcase the flexibility and adaptability of Drytac solutions, as well as the overall quality of these products.’

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Manufacturer of inkjet printers and cutting technologies, exclusively distributed in the UK and Ireland by Hybrid Services, Mimaki Europe has looked to long serving Mr Terashima to take the company forward.

Starting his career at Mimaki in 1997 as part of the R&D department, Mr Terashima has developed his knowledge of Mimaki’s technology portfolio and the surrounding market over the past 26 years.

Prior to his new role, Mr Terashima was senior general manager of the Asia Oceania business unit, a position he first started in 2017. Formerly to this, he spent six months as senior deputy general manager of quality management between April and October 2017.

Mr Terashima’s career path has also led him to work beyond Mimaki’s headquarters in Japan, in positions across the company’s branches. He spent four years as managing director of Mimaki Singapore between 2013 and 2017, and he also worked at Mimaki USA early in his career as part of the technical support staff.

Mimaki Europe’s new managing director aims to bring his industry expertise, analytical thinking, business, and team-building skills, as well as his extensive company knowledge, to this new role.

Excited by this latest challenge, Mr Terashima commented, ‘Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the European headquarters, we can look back on the past two decades proudly, thanks to the ongoing hard-work and effort of the team.

‘Looking to the future, it is key to ensure our principles of innovation, collaboration, and sustainability continue to drive us to provide excellence for our customers.

‘Being part of this company and the print industry for over 25 years, I am committed to taking Mimaki into the next 20 years of success.’

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The introduction of the EFI Pro 30f was important for a ‘speed boost’ to increase the company’s production capacity. John Paragian, owner and president of American Image said, ‘We were looking for a printer that would fit in our space-constrained facility and give us the speed boost we were looking for. The EFI Pro 30f ticked all the boxes. It has allowed us to print items we were not able to print before in terms of size, and it has also allowed us to consolidate our print production, putting multiple jobs on the printer at one time, adding to our ability to meet tight time-to-market requirements.’

The value of the printer to the company became more prominent with its ability to give users the power to print on clear and coloured media, as well as speciality and heavy media like wood, metal or glass with a total weight of 181 kilograms, backlit double-sided applications, and spot white to increase image vibrancy.

A decision on the investment in the EFI Pro 30f was made easy after seeing the printer in action and having interacted with the EFI team. Mr Paragian said, ‘If you are going to invest in a piece of equipment, getting to know the team that is responsible for it is a big plus.’ An investment which has paid off for Mr Paragian as he concluded, ‘If I had the room,’ he said, ‘I would acquire another one in a heartbeat.’

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HMDS’s current Xeikon 9800, located in Jacksonville, will be joined by a new Xeikon SX30000, and a second Xeikon SX30000 will be installed in HMDS’ Pittsburgh facility. ‘We’ve used Xeikon digital presses with exceptional results for more than a decade. As our business steadily grows, it was an easy decision to upgrade our current Xeikon presses to their top-of-the-line Xeikon SX30000,’ commented Ihar Liashko, director of strategic operations, at HM Document Solutions.

The fast and efficient Xeikon SX30000 can deliver as many as 2545 colour 4/4 printed B2 sheets an hour (equivalent to 428ppm A4), and is claimed to have lower setup costs than conventional technologies. Offering a wide range of substrate choice, it can print on uncoated papers, digital coated papers in silk, gloss or matte, and standard offset papers up to 350gsm and synthetic media. The Xeikon SX30000 uses the new Sirius toner, which is produced in a plant powered by 100% green energy. The print is fully de-inkable in existing waste streams.

‘We are happy to play a part in HM Document Solutions’ continued success,’ said Donna Covannon, director of marketing at Xeikon America. ‘A growing number of commercial print providers are acquiring the Xeikon SX30000, attracted by its many unique features.’   

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Inter-State Studio is the first US customer to have purchased the DFA-560 in alignment with the Canon ProStream 1800 inkjet web press. The family-owned business has been servicing its customers nationwide since 1933. The Canon ProStream 1800 inkjet web press is the company’s first web inkjet press and is predominantly used for the printing of yearbooks. The company services around 3500 schools in all fifty states across the US, with order sizes of up to one million yearbooks for a year, often coming during short-time frames during the holiday seasons.

Brian Dieckman, engineering manager, said, ‘We are often under intense time pressures to produce yearbooks on such a large scale. This means we need every advantage we can get and that’s where Contiweb’s DFA solutions will really help. Canon led us in the direction of Contiweb and the DFA will aid us in chartering somewhat unknown waters as this is relatively new application for inkjet printing.’

The Contiweb DFA-560 is a standalone fluid applicator that uses tap water and a surfactant for intelligent remoisturising of paper that is processed through an inkjet web press. It offers a water only or water + silicone substrate mixing and application system.

Precise remoisturising is obtained by individually controlling the process for each side of the paper. This process helps enable increased runnability of lightweight paper applications which require post process finishing. Optionally, the DFA-560 can also apply silicone, which helps stabilise the paper after printing, especially for heavy substrates which have heavy ink loads. This maximises output quality prior to finishing while improving the overall user experience.

The post Inter-State Studio installs first Contiweb DFA-560 in US appeared first on Digital Printer.

IES invested in the new super-high-speed press to expand its Vutek-heavy digital graphics production floor and venture into new market opportunities, addressing a growing demand for higher-volume rigid substrate work.

The new printer is built on an entirely new platform, designed for throughput and print capabilities, litho-like image quality, and ink yield to help sign and display graphics providers win more profitable business and expand their applications.

IES owner Adam Ingram said, ‘The Vutek XT is going to change us in many ways, the biggest being pressroom disruption. Our capacity is going to go through the roof compared to where we are now.’

IES purchased its first EFI printer in 2016. Now, along with the new XT model the company runs two hybrid and two roll-to-roll Vutek systems – including a second Vutek Q3r roll-fed UV LED inkjet printer installed in early 2022.

Founded in 1995 as a kitting, fulfilment, and distribution company, IES has grown to offer a broad range of display graphics services for retailers, restaurants, and grocery and convenience stores. Plus, the company has expanded into graphics for the sports and events markets, serving many of the state’s professional sports teams – including the National Sounds, the Nashville Predators, and Tennessee Titans.

The VUTEk XT printer is designed to drive a significant reduction in total cost of ownership with superior throughput exceeding 350 boards per hour. A new vacuum architecture on the Vutek XT printer offers five times more hold-down for a wide range of materials. A new media transport eliminates the need for material edge guides, ensuring highly accurate registration and smooth transport of even thick boards.

Mr Ingram added, ‘Our customers are looking for faster turnaround at better cost. We’re in a time now where material costs are through the roof so customers are looking for everything they can and efficiencies matter.

‘In wide format, large jobs – while they’re great – can be very scary because you can get them in and all of a sudden you think this is a 12-15 day run. Now, for us, those jobs will be 2-3 days max, so we’ll be able to turn more jobs out in a quicker span.’

A multi-lane printing feature on the new Vutek XT model offers users the option to feed boards in up to three printing lanes, using the same or different print files. The machine supports roll-to-roll printing of large rolls up to 1.5m in diameter with two independent drives for two-up printing, or one collaborative drive for one-up printing.

Enhanced dual-zone ‘Pin and Cure’ technology on the new printer uses LED lamps to immediately pin drops of ink on the substrate during printing, followed by a traditional UV lamp cure as the substrate leaves the printer. This proven and innovative curing process offers better uniformity, colour density, and a wider colour gamut in high-volume throughput. EFI’s new CP5G ink delivery technology on the printer delivers complete ink circulation, superior dot placement, 5-picolitre drops and grayscale imaging – a robust feature set that can ensure IES and its customers gain fine text imaging and near-lithographic imaging with a four-color CMYK inkset.

The ink recirculation system is leveraged from EFI’s Nozomi single-pass inkjet printer architecture and ensures continuous flow of fresh ink, at the correct temperature, always at the ready. Users can also expect to obtain a yield of more than 168sqm per litre of ink – an ink yield increase of 30% to 50% compared to other inkjet sign and display graphics printers.

The EFI Fiery proServer Premium digital front end (DFE) drives IES’s new Vutek XT printer, providing built-in production tools and colour management, along with EFI’s RIP technology for accelerated file processing.

A high-throughput data channel and unique Fiery Sign Flow every print is different (EPiD) technology allows IES to quickly sequence retail display graphics for optimal in-store installation. Campaigns come off the printer and onto the pallet in the order needed for optimal installation, based on each specific store layout, reducing the need for hand collation either at the print shop or the store.

The post EFI Vutek XT display graphics printer installed at IES appeared first on Digital Printer.

SinaLite, a trade-only printer founded 23 years ago, claims that the productivity of the system and the consequent economies of scale are key drivers behind the decision. The press enhances sheets up to 1.04m (B1), with excellent corner-to-corner registration, according to the company’s president Mike Meshkati.

Mr Meshkati said, ‘Having dipped a toe into the world of enhancement, we were looking to step up to a professional, heavyweight solution to suit the size of our business. We’re one of the largest trade-only printers in North America with work coming in from over 20,000 customers, and with offices in the USA now as well as Canada, so we need productive, cost effective solutions such as the Scodix Ultra 6000.

Vice president of global sales, Mark Nixon, added, ‘On a sheet that size registration for enhancement can be difficult, but as Mike points out, Scodix is unsurpassed in its ability to register accurately and reliably on corner-to-corner business cards. We were very excited to win this order.’

SinaLite started as a small 111.4sqm outfit with a single-color offset press. Today the business is still family-run, but prints from a 9290sqm facility, with offices in Dublin, Ohio, and Toronto. With a web-2-print business model, SinaLite prints a huge variety of products from business cards, stationery, promotional products, corrugated boxes, labels, custom apparel, large format print, signage, and prototyping.

Mr Meshkati added, ‘The Scodix Ultra 6000 offers an incredible variety of enhancements, but most importantly it will allow us to swap from one enhancement to another very quickly, for instance from gold foil to silver. Switching jobs in minutes where previously we would need half an hour, or an hour is important. We know our customers want to be able to decorate our packaging products more and now we can offer that.

‘The Scodix enhancement press will also work seamlessly with our offset presses, taking sheets straight from printing into enhancement on pallets, dramatically reducing our handling, maximising economies of scale and making significant cost savings per sheet.’

The post SinaLite invests in Scodix digital enhancement press appeared first on Digital Printer.

The all-in-one handheld colour measurement device is also said to be able to guide press operators to achieving the lowest delta-E values, via specific density adjustments to achieve the best possible colour match.

The German-headquartered company points out that OBAs have a significant effect not only on how people perceive paper under different lighting, but also on the results of putting ink down during the printing process. SpectroDens 4’s measurement function, OBA-Check, provides information about the intensity of the optical brightening agents used and the shade of the paper.

‘This is extremely useful information in today’s print market where printers are finding it increasingly difficult to locate paper and need to purchase paper from a wider variety of suppliers just to keep their presses running. With OBA-Check, a printer can measure and know the amount of OBAs in each stock and understand how the colour appearance will be affected in different viewing environments,’ David Strand, VP of marketing at Techkon USA, told Digital Printer.

The company also claims that SpectroDens 4 is the first colour measurement instrument to quantify the visual opacity of printed white ink or toner, allowing users to measure and monitor opaque white’s ‘hiding power’, something specified in ISO 23498:2020 and historically a challenge for digital printers.

‘[This] is critical in all conventional or digital printing applications that lay down white ink when printing on clear, metallic or speciality substrates, or when printing metallic inks,’ noted Mr Strand. ‘It creates a base layer on which the next ink is laid. Basic printing principles don’t typically account for ‘white first’, so, as it is effectively ‘hiding’ underneath, it has to be factored in appropriately to achieve the ideal colour match(es) needed on the final product.’

Measuring white opacity requires four measurements of ink drawdown on a black and white contrast card. These are interpolated by the SpectroDens 4 spectrodensitometer and provide the user with the white ink’s ability to reduce the effect of the substrate. This avoids press operators guessing, which can lead to longer make-ready times in analogue print and unnecessarily wasted substrate materials and ink in digital.

Additional features of the SpectroDens 4 include a GrayGuide that displays a G7 pass/fail indication, and the specific CMYK density adjustments needed. It can also scan a control wedge in seconds to confirm proofs against ISO 12647-7 and known datasets like Gracol, Swop3, Swop5, Ifra, Ugra/Fogra and G7. The machine can create, edit, and manage colour libraries, import/export colour data, generate pass/fail QC reports, and manage the instrument, all via onboard software.

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Implemented in software, the lustre effect is achievable on all Inkcups’ digital cylinder printing machines, similar to mirror print, tone-on-tone, and contour print. The new technique allows unlimited embellishment features to create gradations, dimensions, hidden and subtle watermarks and patterns with the metallic colours. The specialised software eliminates time consuming manual steps, to save time and money.

Ben Adner, CEO of Inkcups, said, ‘This new technique will enhance offerings by enabling customers to print metallic colours and embellishments on products like aluminium cans, stainless tumblers, and more.’

The company currently has warehouse locations in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong.

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The company, with locations in both New York and New Jersey, ventured into packaging since the beginning of the pandemic. The HP Indigo 15K digital press is equipped with a thick substrate kit allowing the press to process up to 24pt media, which is a thick stock that can be used for packaging and other applications.

Beginning as a boutique retoucher in 1987, the company serves major retailers such as jewellers, clothing companies, hotels, nonprofits, and pharmaceuticals. The company’s services include creative photography, pre-media services, retouching, production of print pieces such as brochures and large format graphics.

DCC founder Steve Pandolfi said, ‘We have had success over the years with HP’s digital presses and it has allowed us to invest on our fourth Indigo press. This press gives us more flexibility with the widest colour gamut and it allows us to print on 50lb text paper up to 24pt board most commonly used for packaging.’

Kirk McLean, general manager at Americas HP Indigo, said, ‘With this new HP Indigo 15K digital press, they’re well-equipped to expand their packaging business and we look forward to seeing them continue to achieve new milestones and deliver for the industries they serve.

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